Translation vs Localization vs Transcreation
What is the difference between translation, localization and transcreation?
Translation changes the words of a page into another language and keeps the meaning. Localization also adapts the page to the place: prices, currency, dates, spelling, examples and legal details. Transcreation rewrites a message, such as a slogan, so it has the same effect on a new audience. Most websites need all three, on different pages.
Key takeaways
- Translation changes the language, localization changes the language and everything tied to the place, and transcreation finds new words for the same effect.
- Choose by the kind of content, not once for the whole website.
- A page translated word for word can be correct and still miss the words people search with.
- Google works out a page's language from its visible text and recommends a separate URL for each language version.
- Translated pages go out of date unless someone owns them, so plan the upkeep before you launch.
In this guide
This guide is for owners deciding how to take a website into another language or country. It sets out translation vs localization vs transcreation in plain terms, shows which one each part of a site needs, and explains how to stop translated pages going out of date. Planning this for each country is part of our international SEO service.
Translation vs localization vs transcreation: what is the difference?
They differ in how much is allowed to change. Translation keeps as close to the original as the new language allows. Localization changes whatever the place requires. Transcreation may change the words entirely, as long as the reader ends up feeling and understanding the same thing.
| Translation | Localization | Transcreation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What changes | The language | The language and everything tied to the place | The wording, and sometimes the idea behind it |
| What stays the same | The meaning, sentence by sentence | The meaning and the purpose of the page | The effect on the reader |
| Typical content | Help articles, product specifications, instructions | Pricing, checkout, service pages, contact details | Slogans, ad headlines, campaign names, humour |
| Who does it | A translator | A translator who knows the market, with your team supplying the facts | A copywriter from that market, working from a written brief |
| Main risk | Correct text that sounds foreign and misses local search words | Facts left unchanged, such as currency or delivery | A line that promises more than you can deliver |
Localization
Adapting a product or its content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific market. That is the W3C's definition in outline. The W3C, which sets web standards, lists number, date and time formats, currency, symbols, icons and colours, and differing legal requirements among the things localization can involve.
Transcreation
A trade term that joins “translation” and “creation”. It means writing a new line in the target language that does the same job as the original, instead of translating its words. It starts from a brief that says what the line must promise and what it must not.
Which one does each part of your website need?
Decide by what the content is for. One method across the whole site is either too loose for the product facts or too stiff for the marketing.
| Content | Start with | Always check |
|---|---|---|
| Product facts, specifications, help and support steps | Translation, using an agreed list of terms | Accuracy, and that the terms match the buttons and menus in the product |
| Prices, currency, dates, units, delivery, contact details | Localization | That each statement is true in that country |
| Service pages and landing pages | Localization, built on keyword research for that market | The words people search with, and local proof and examples |
| Page titles, headings and search descriptions | Localization from keyword research | That nothing was translated word for word |
| Slogans, ad headlines and campaign ideas | Transcreation from a written brief | That the promise is one you can keep, and a read by someone from that market |
| Legal, health, financial or other regulated wording | A qualified specialist in that country | The rules of that country, and a named person who signed it off |
The search wording is where translation most often lets a page down. The translated phrase can be correct and still not be what people type. That research has its own guide: multilingual keyword research.
Should you translate your website?
Translate when you can serve the customers the translation brings. A page in French that leads to an English-only checkout and an English-only phone line disappoints the visitor it attracted.
Should you translate, and what?
- You already get enquiries or orders from people who speak that language, and can serve them in itYes. Start with the pages that sell, plus checkout and contact, and translate them fully.
- You cannot answer the phone, reply to email or deliver in that languageNot yet. Sort out the service first, then the pages.
- The law where you sell requires itTake legal advice. For Quebec, start with [whether your website needs to be in French](/insights/local-international-seo/french-website-quebec).
- Same language, different country, such as the USA and AustraliaYou need localization, not translation: spelling, prices, examples and proof for that country.
What does website localization mean for Google?
It means the words a visitor can see must be in the right language, on a web address of their own. Google's documentation on multilingual sites is specific on four points.
- Google uses the visible content of a page to work out its language. A label in the code does not do it.
- Google recommends a different URL for each language version of a page.
- Google cautions against translating only the boilerplate, meaning the menus and footers, while the main content stays in another language. It also advises against side-by-side translations on one page.
- Google advises against sending visitors to a language version automatically, based on a guess at their language. Add visible links between the versions so people can choose.
Google's documentation on multilingual sites says it uses the visible content of a page to determine its language, recommends different URLs for each language version, and cautions against translating only the boilerplate text of a page.
Source2Google Search Central
Once the versions exist, the tag that tells Google which version is for which language and country (hreflang) connects them. Google says each version must list itself and all the others, and that if two pages do not point to each other the tags are ignored. See what hreflang is and when you need it.
How do you keep translated pages up to date?
Give each market's pages an owner, and decide in advance what happens when the original page changes. Translated pages are usually right on launch day. They go wrong months later, when a price or a promise changes on the original and nobody tells the other versions.
| Kind of change | Example | What the translated pages do |
|---|---|---|
| Must change everywhere | A safety correction, a product fact, a new company name | Every language is updated together |
| Check locally first | An offer, a price, a claim or an example | The owner for that market confirms it is true there before it goes live |
| Must not be overwritten | A legal notice or a promise that applies to one country only | The local version stays as it is |
| Retire | A product you no longer sell in that market | That market's page is removed or redirected |
What to record for each translated page
- The original it came fromWhich page, and the date of the version that was translated.
- Who owns itA named person for that market who can say whether a statement is true there.
- What is different on purposeLocal prices, local legal wording, a rewritten headline. An automatic update must not overwrite these.
- When it was last checkedAnd which other language versions it is connected to, so none is left pointing at a page that has gone.
International SEO service
We plan what each country's pages should say and which words they should use, set up the tags that connect the versions, and check that the right page is shown in the right country.
See the serviceCountries we work in
Questions owners ask about translation and localization
Is localization the same as internationalization?
No. The W3C, which sets web standards, describes internationalization as designing and building a product so that it can be localized easily. A website built so that currency, dates and text can change by country is internationalized. Changing them for Canada is localization.
Can I use machine translation for my website?
As a draft that a person who knows the market corrects, yes. Publishing it unchecked is the risk. Google's spam policies list generating many pages through automated translation of scraped content, with little value for users, as scaled content abuse. Read every page before it goes live, and have legal or safety wording translated by a specialist.
Do I need a separate website for each language?
No. Google recommends a different URL for each language version of a page, and those URLs can be folders on one website. See what international SEO is for the ways to organise them.
Does Taskcover translate the pages?
We plan what each country's pages should say and which words they should use. The writing or translation can be done by your team or by partners we coordinate with, and it is priced separately. Plans are on the pricing page.
See how your site looks from another country.
Send us your website and the countries you sell in, and our free audit will show which version each country sees and what to fix first.
The authors
Who wrote and checked this guide
Written by
Jamiez Nguyen
Founder & CEO
Jamiez Nguyen founded Taskcover and leads strategy and client growth. He started it in 2017 as a team doing search work behind the scenes for other agencies, then opened it to businesses in the USA, Canada and Australia.
Reviewed by
John Edward
CTO
John Edward leads the technical side of Taskcover: how sites are built, how fast they load, and how search engines read them.
Updated Fact-checked About the people at Taskcover
Sources
Where the facts in this guide come from
Facts last checked on October 12, 2026.
- 1Localization vs. InternationalizationW3C InternationalizationChecked on October 12, 2026
- 2Managing multi-regional and multilingual sitesGoogle Search CentralChecked on October 12, 2026
- 3Tell Google about localized versions of your pageGoogle Search CentralChecked on October 12, 2026
- 4Spam policies for Google web searchGoogle Search CentralChecked on October 12, 2026
